


Bigger Than My Body (Colder Than This Home)

by Roryshipsit



Series: Undotted. [1]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Light Angst, Viren disappears before he would have sent them to go hunt the kids, Zombies, basically claudia overhears Harrow shoot down the soul snake idea and changes the plan, kinda!, marcos is really smart for plot reasons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 13:58:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17101904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roryshipsit/pseuds/Roryshipsit
Summary: "Claudia? General Amaya just got back, there are 2 outbreaks in the southern kingdom." Soren wheezes, breathless. He's been doing damage control all day for the past week."Damn it! Who would have even used dark magic there?” Claudia, not for the first time that day, takes a moment to feel sorry for herself. Maybe more than one, depending on how long you think a moment is. Soren leans on the door, always more patient than Claudia remembered. Finally, she sighs. "Ok. Any update on the victims here?"-Or: Claudia breaks the laws of magic. This may or may not create zombies.





	Bigger Than My Body (Colder Than This Home)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a collection of snapshots to start off what will (hopefully) be a much larger series. Genuinely very excited to be working on this! Thank you SO MUCH to @teddykreuger on tumblr for the really interesting prompts (I know you said you wanted the kids being happy....... that's coming in pt 2 I pinky promise)

When Claudia was 10 years old, she asked someone for help.

This should be unsurprising. Children 10 and under need help with lots of things. They need help tying their shoes, and braiding their hair, and making friends, and counting to 1000. But at 10 years old Claudia knew how to count to 1000 and could do that many spells and she didn’t care about literally anything else.

But when you’re 10 years and you know 1000 spells and that’s all you think about, you start to drain yourself in a way that no other 10 year olds or even adults can understand. This is why Claudia needed help.

“Harrow?” Claudia had yelled up the stairs to the kings room before galloping up. In her mind, she must have wanted to make as much noise as possible so he wouldn’t be surprised to see her. Never creep up on people you care about, Her dad had joked to her once, eyes warm but tone even. You only sneak up on things you’re hunting. Do we want to make people feel hunted? The quiet moment had been long forgotten, but the idea never would be. With that said, it’s also possible she didn’t realize quite how loud she was. “HAAAARROOOOW!” She yelled again as she straightened up before the door. But when the door swung open, it wasn’t him.

Instead, she was face to face with the loose teal and gold and red cotton pajama pants of Queen Sarai. Claudia had never really spoken to her before, because she had always seemed collected in a way that no one else was. But here, in pajamas, with slightly uneven hair falling flat down her shoulders, Claudia wondered how on earth she’d seemed unapproachable before.

“Hey there,” She whisper yelled, falling into a crouch so Claudia could see she was smiling “Harrow is asleep, sorry.”

“After all that?” Claudia looked past the queen curiously.

“I know right?” Sarai huffed, eyes soft. “He’s… he’s had a long day. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Uhh, you know. Actually yeah.” Claudia said as she stared at the wall just over Sarai’s shoulder. “I think I can’t hear anything? Or I can hear now, but I couldn’t a couple minutes ago. It happened the other day too”

Sarai pursed her lips, her face otherwise carefully neutral. “What were you doing when it happened?” She said finally, softly.

Claudia took a big gulp of breath, “I was just practicing my magic like normal. Spells and stuff.” 

At this Sarai would have frowned fully. “Does your dad know you stay up this late practicing?”

“Ha! No, he thinks I always get the spells on my first try, but really I’m just looking ahead. Sometimes it takes me hours to get just one down! But I can’t tell him that.” Claudia had laughed and probably fidgeted as she said this, eyes gliding around to avoid eye contact.

“I- there’s a lot to unpack there. Ok.” Sarai had breathed. Her eyes squeezed shut for a long time. “I don’t know how to solve your problem, but,” a pause. “I think I know how to make life a little easier for you in the meantime. Do you want to learn how to sign?”

The words are lost to memory, but 10 year old Claudia must have said something along the lines of “Yes!” because she spent the next 3 years of her life sneaking out to the border with Sarai to meet up with Amaya and learn sign language. By that point, of course, Sarai had gone to yell at Viren for letting her do magic that drained her so much and, as an unintended consequence on Sarai’s part, that was the night Claudia was taught how to cast spells by killing. 

(She stayed mad at Sarai for telling for a week, but the hurt that her dad had known she was stealing her own life force.... That lasted much longer.)

(After 3 years the queen died. That was the end of lessons.)  
-  
“But what did he mean we’ll pay the consequences later? What does he know?” Claudia paced around her and Soren’s meeting place.

“What does it matter,” Soren leaned against the wall and stared dismissively at the carpet. “I still think you shouldn’t have eavesdropped on the king.”

“Well dad shouldn’t have tried to sell my idea on him without me there. I just don’t get what the hangup is? It’s an easy out.”

“Good kings don’t take easy outs,” Soren said instantly. To Claudia, the line sounded almost rehearsed. “And he doesn’t want anyone to die in his place. That’s honorable to me.”

“You’d rather him be honorable than alive?” she snapped. “Besides, how many guardsmen do you think will die guarding his door? I’d bet more than one.”

“That stuff was in the job description sis. Switching bodies and waiting like a sitting duck? That’s something else entirely. But,” Soren looked up then, and Claudia scoffed at the softness in his eyes. “I get how hard this is for you. He means a lot to a lot of people.”

Claudia began to mutter a lie about not caring, when a thought suddenly started to come together. “Soren… what if he didn’t have to switch with anybody?”

“Well that’s kind of the current plan…”

“No I mean, if the soul fang serpent can extract, store, and switch souls, what’s stopping us from just extracting them?” Claudia grabbed a bewildered Soren by the shoulders. “Just for a minute or 5, right when they go in for the kill. Then we uh… heal him I guess? And then put his soul back. Perfect plan.”

“Shit, Claudia, you can’t just hold someone’s soul for a minute!” But she was already running out the door, tapping her nose and looking forward with wild eyes.  
-  
The days leading up to the attack go relatively smoothly, and even Harrow relents when Claudia begs him to (so maybe she cried a little too). In fact, it’s all going pretty well. Right up until the important part.

Claudia remembers the lead up. She remembers waiting with her ear pressed against drywall, listening in to the king’s chambers for something to happen, remembers her dad’s eyes closing in concentration, remembers his wince when the doors burst open. She even remembers the last moment, her and Viren nodding at each other before putting their hands to the wall and pulling pulling pulling at Harrow’s life force.

And then: A flash of light. 

The next thing she sees is gray. Some kind of ash is floating in the air, probably from the drywall where it shattered. Just past Claudia, motionless Moonshadow elves lay, no longer nearly invisible. When she looks closer, she sees their chests rising and falling shallowly. She feels oddly relieved. On the other side of the room, King harrow looks oddly like he’s thawing.

She reaches over to feel a pulse and starts laughing hysterically when she finds one. “Dad we did it! He’s alive!” 

Silence.

“Dad?”

When she looks over, what she sees is only barely her father. Viren sits, dazed, his har suddenly white and his skin gray.

“Hm.” He says, now black eyes looking at Claudia curiously. “Ereht em ekat” He murmers. In the next moment, he’s gone.  
-  
"Claudia? General Amaya just got back, there are 2 outbreaks in the southern kingdom." Soren wheezes, breathless. He's been doing damage control all day for the past week.

"Damn it! Who would have even used dark magic there?” Claudia, not for the first time that day, takes a moment to feel sorry for herself. Maybe more than one, depending on how long you think a moment is. Soren leans on the door, always more patient than Claudia remembered. Finally, she sighs. "Ok. Any update on the victims here?"

"Well," Soren hesitates, and Claudia groans again. "No news is good news, right? Don't answer that." Soren supplies. "None of them are dead and none of them are violent, so maybe 'Operation Zombie Outbreak' wasn't the best thing to call it." he rambles. "We probably could have avoided some panic. Ha. The good new is, people aren't really worrying about the uh. whole royal family being missing or comatose." 

“So Harrow’s still asleep then.” Claudia curses. "Well we can't change the name, thinking about zombies is literally what's getting me through this." She lets her head fall back against the chair "Besides the paralysis and the grey hair, is anybody else's vision and hearing wonky, or is it just me?"

" the serious symptoms should just be you and dad, since you cast the spell. Marcos thinks that you basically retroactively corrupted dark magic, so everyone who’s had dark magic used on them is affected.”

"right." Claudia closes her eyes as she hears a high pitched ringing, usually her only warning that her hearing was about to cut out. How many times had this happened so far? "Soren, are Amaya and Gren still in Katolis?" she mutters, half hopefully.

"Uh, they should be? I- OH, oh. Yeah, let me find them." With that, Soren sprints out of the room.

Claudia only has a minute to rest before she feels people coming back up.

'what's up?' Gren signs, entering the room. Amaya follows after, waving distractedly. She looks older than Claudia remembered, the stress of trying to find the princes in the middle of all this chaos clearly weighing on her. Suddenly, Claudia is painfully aware that she doesn’t know what she wanted to say to them. Calling them had just felt like the right thing to do at the time.

'nothing. Just wondering if there are any updates. Soren tried to tell me but I couldn't hear him.' She half lies. 

'we found 2 more victims in the southern kingdom.' Amaya signs, seriously. 'We suspect more in the north.'

'but they're all stable!' Gren cuts in. 'None of them seem really negatively impacted at all, so don't worry too much.' 

Claudia snorts at the enthusiasm, remembering how blunt Soren had been earlier. Amaya's lips quirk at both of them.

'he's right. you shouldn't stress.'

'me? I'm never stressed! You should see the other guy.' Amaya relaxes slightly, as Gren’s lips purse in confusion. It’s a reaction that makes Claudia feel familiar, and a little nostalgic. 'The other guy is Soren. He's a mess today.’ Claudia sits up now and grins. The room seems imperceptibly brighter, and the absolute shit ton of dust in the study seemed to float slower in the beams of light by the window. 

'If you were stressed, it wouldn’t be surprising. I know the situation with your dad can’t be easy-’ Amaya starts to sign.

‘No, that’s fine.’ Claudia hurries, falling back against the couch ‘i’m glad to hear everyone is stable. I’ll go talk to Marcos about the antidote, I should let you two get back to it.’

‘We have time to talk, really.’ Gren protests, but Amaya is already nodding and pulling him out. Sometimes Claudia forgets how well Amaya knows what it’s like to grieve. 

‘See you soon, stay safe.’ Amaya signs as she closes the door.

‘Godspeed’ Claudia fingerspells to an empty room, letting out an embarrassingly sad, breathy laugh. 

It’s another 10 minutes before she can notices that she can hear again.

-

She does go to find Marcos eventually, even though it takes her a few hours. Even though all she really wants to do is lay on that couch or maybe time travel back to last month. Last month, before she had found that stupid snake, before Cal and Ezran and her dad had run off. 

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Marcos is not alone in the hall. What’s surprising is his specific choice in company. Lined up against the wall in the small hallway is Marcos, Soren, and an elf. A very armed elf.

“Hello Claudia.” Marcos says, sarcastic but also somehow jittery. “This is Rayla. She tried to kill me once, but now she’s here to help, since she’s familiar with magic.”

Soren beams tiredly. “She knows Cal and Ez too! But they’re hiding outside the kingdom in case Raylas assassin uncle was still here to kill them.”

Rayla nods thoughtfully. She and Marcos are leaning over to examine what looks like a lock of white hair. “Greetings!” 

“Uh, hi.” At this point Claudia has seen too much to challenge any of...this. “What’s the latest.”

“Magic,” She starts, incredibly seriously, “is like a net.” Claudia stares at her, fascinated. “Dark magic is all about pulling threads loose. What you tried to do with the king, is pull a thread loose and then put it back, but it doesn’t work like that. When you forced his life force back into him, you got all the other strings tangled.”

Claudia stares at Rayla, who stares back in challenge. They have a staring contest of sorts. Pale yellow light bleeds in through a faraway window, landing on the worn red carpet they’re sitting on. Claudia feels oddly comfortable here.

“What do we do now then?” Claudia says finally.

“We find a solution.”


End file.
